School board gets ball rolling for new gym floor, bleachers
A member of the teachers union spoke in support of the former boys basketball coach.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- The high school gym floor and bleachers will get a $385,000 update.
The school board at a meeting Monday authorized James Massey, director of operations, to advertise for bids for replacement of the gym floor and refurbishment of the gym bleachers.
The estimate for the bleachers is $170,000 while the floor's projected cost is $215,000. Superintendent Frank Lazzeri said the bleachers have been deemed unsafe.
Bids likely will be opened in mid-May and the work will begin shortly after commencement in June.
The work must be done by Aug. 13 so that teams that use the gym in late summer won't be disrupted.
Lazzeri said teams that usually use the facility earlier in the summer plan to use alternate locations.
Coach defended
In other business, board members heard from a member of the teachers union executive board regarding the board's decision earlier this month to not renew the contract for longtime boys basketball coach Dan Gorski.
District officials have said the board wants to hire someone else.
Dan Pavlansky, a Boardman Education Association executive board member and a track coach, praised Gorski, noting that during Gorski's 16 years as head basketball coach he had received only positive written evaluations. Students whom Gorski coached have gone on to play in college and some have begun coaching careers, Pavlansky said.
In other business at the meeting, board members recognized students who had reached the state level in academic or athletic events this year and their teachers or coaches.